Voile Academy - Arc of Trials
by FantasySpark
Summary: "Something is interrupting the balance in Gensokyo. Mysterious youkai are trailing the ground, and we must stay alert. Keep on your toes, because something disastrous might erupt." After having received a mysterious message that comes true, the students lose trust in each other and began to turn. Will Voile fall apart as we know it?
1. Chapter 1

**Yeah, I decided I'll do something a bit serious with a little more insight on characters outside of the EoSD cast. And believe me, none of this is as random as you may think it is.**

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When all of Voile Academy's students awoke, they were to meet in an odd barren spot of dry ground before breakfast with no instructions but to just be there. They all did as told, confused as ever as to why that was necessary.

"Do you sense something, Sanae?" Suwako asked her in a rare serious tone.

"No, not at all, Lady Suwako." she answered as she surveyed the area. "Is it something serious?"

"Who knows..." she sighed. And Suwako wasn't the only one. Others, such as Remilia, Satori, Youmu, and Alice weren't feeling too safe. Reimu was nowhere to be seen, and an odd group of youkai everyone could have sworn weren't seen at the school before walked around. They all waited in silence and tension until a loud sound resonated from above. A cursed gap had ripped a whole open in the sky, and out stepped Yukari, a youkai who no one would dare to oppose.

"I see that you're all here." she scanned the area quickly.

"Yukari, what is the meaning of this?" Suwako asked. Only a few of the higher-ups dared to speak out.

"It's simply a meeting. A rather serious one." she answered. "Something is interrupting the balance in Gensokyo, and I'm sure a good number of you have began to notice it. Mysterious youkai are trailing the ground, and we must stay alert. Keep on your toes, because something disastrous might erupt." Was all she said before slipping back into the gap.

"Damn, it's what I thought!" Suwako growled.

"Lady Suwako?" Sanae couldn't get an answer out of the agitated god. Murmur immediately rose from all the youkai, and not the happy kind.

"Sakuya, this is rather serious." Remilia sighed. "We're all being watched."

"Onee-sama, I can feel it as well." Flandre reported. "I see youkai I've never seen before."

"I agree." Patchouli spoke out. "A serious magical power..."

"Yukari is trying to fool us again!" Marisa laughed. "No way there's some youkai floating around with some magical power!"

"Marisa, this is serious. Being a magician you should feel it too."

"Hmph, whatever. It's time for breakfast anyway." Others noticed it too, and walked towards the hall. All of them quickly shuffled to their respective seats, and barely a fork hit a plate. All of them were too worried.

"I wanna say it ain't true..." Orin sighed.

"So it really is?" Okuu asked. "I saw a few strange people pass by us, but none of them are here."

"Both of you are much too scared," Satori told her pets. "But yes, something isn't exactly right..." When it was time for them to go to their classes, the hall was filled with footsteps. Dead silence. Nothing changed when they got to class, though. Magic Library was just as difficult, the Battle Station was just as odd, the Experiment Lab was just as dangerous. Okuu was sitting next to Orin in Gensou Files when something brushed her shoulder and scratched her left wing as it passed. She let out a little yelp of surprise, only to be scolded by the teacher. When talking to Orin, she swore that something weird really did happen. They all made it to their break in the middle of the day and began to think nothing was really all that bad.

"I don't really care this matter," Kaguya sighed.

"Princess?" Reisen and Tewi were left to accompany Kaguya, because Eirin had some work to do.

"I think this is all just child's play. They're foolish to think I'll fall for such things."

"And if you did fall for it...?" Tewi grinned.

"Then I'll call it a fair game, right?"

"Princess, if this is a game, why is it being taken so seriously?" Reisen asked.

"Because Yukari didn't speak in an easily comprehensive way. Talking in rhymes made them all freak out. I'm sure only the mountain goddess understands."

"But she too seemed worried."

"That is true." Kaguya noticed. "Maybe it means life or death after all." Kaguya saw that what she said sent chills down Reisen's spine and began to laugh.

The air was still ominous but there weren't too many odd occurrences. Flandre was a bit quiet and Reimu was still nowhere to be found. Suwako was also just as quiet, and a few other youkai were rather agitated. Once again, Marisa suggested they better not worry and that signaled the end of break. A week past since the last battle, so they started up sparring matches again that day. No one put their effort into it, and most seemed off balance or didn't even move. They then finished up their last classes and returned to the hall.

"Yeah, I'm not feeling it." Merlin sighed.

"What do you mean?" Lyrica asked.

"Merlin means that she can't cope with what happened before breakfast. Everything is off all of a sudden." Lunasa explained.

"Lunasa is right. I was playing today, and I could have sworn something bumped into me. I almost dropped my trumpet, and I barely even touch it!"

"Ah... that would seem impossible, wouldn't it?" Lyrica asked. Merlin nodded in agreement. Over at the Kappa's table, a certain one jumped up and ran over to Marisa, holding something in both hands, afraid to drop it.

"Hey Marisa!"

"Ah, it's you. The kappa..."

"Nitori!" she reminded. "I'm Nitori!"

"Right! Sorry about that." she laughed. "Did you bring it back?"

"Yeah, you told me to fix it and all, but every tool in my bag was missing!" she exclaimed. "I didn't want to keep it overnight, so here, have it back." Nitori gave Marisa her mini-hakkero. "I didn't have time to ask in Experiment Lab, but I'll be sure to have new tools ready to go by tomorrow." Marisa nodded and tipped her hat. Nitori returned to her seat and Marisa turned back towards the table.

"How did you break such a precious magic tool?" Patchouli asked. "At least be sure you can take care of your tools."

"Yeah, I take care of this thing. It's just that enough usage and physical battles can treat the poor thing harshly. I had to fix it up after I used it and chips of wood fell off."

"That certainly isn't natural." Patchouli noted. "Overuse isn't common with that type of tool."

"Really? Huh, that's weird..." After everyone had concluded their conversation, they all retreated to their dorms.

"Hey Patchouli, do you believe any of this?" Koakuma asked her.

"Hmm? In a way I sense something powerful, but unless it takes action, I'm not going to freak out like the rest."

"Hopefully it doesn't take action..." Koakuma sighed before pulling her covers over her head and turning to the wall.

"Hmm..." Sanae found Suwako outside of the dorm at midnight, muttering things to herself.

"Lady Suwako?" she asked gently. Suwako jumped at her voice.

"Sanae, return to your room." she told her strictly. "It can be dangerous out here."

"That's why I'm a shrine maiden." she replied. Suwako sighed, before turning to her.

"Then I hope you're prepared to see this." Suwako used a single hand to beckon her to follow. She led her to the very end, where dorm A started, and pointed behind it. Sanae followed quickly, before jumping back in horror. Lying there helplessly, was a girl with a wrench embedded in her head and a hammer in hand. Fellow Kappa and Engineer, Nitori Kawashiro. Sanae gasped, but was too horrified to faint.

"L-Lady Suwako! What is-"

"Sanae, she was killed. That wrench is lodged in her head and there are scratches running down her throat. This is much too serious to be another one of Yukari's games. She foresaw something most horrible."

"But why? Who could have done this!?" she asked.

"That's what I want to know. This isn't safe. We need to get her to Eirin before whoever caused this turns on us." Sanae nodded and they quickly flew to the place where Eirin usually worked. They left her body there, and then traveled to her small residence they could find her and urged her back to where they left Nitori. They waited patiently as she checked Nitori and she gave them her final conclusion.

"From what I can see, they managed to smash her head in with the wrench and through the cranium. Those scratches on her neck reveal that the back of the hammer which is used for nails ripped the skin open there. Since the hammer was in her hand, anyone would call it suicide, but that's not the case. The blood isn't dry around her neck. As soon as the wrench went through her head, that would have caused instant death. She wouldn't have had time to rip her neck open."

"Oh.. oh no..." Sanae gasped. "So... there really is a murderer?"

"That seems to be the case." Suwako sighed. "To go this far... But anyway, I trust you to take care of her body, Eirin. We'll be returning to our dorms." Eirin nodded and Suwako and Sanae flew back. That night, Sanae didn't get a wink of sleep. Suwako however, did.

The news of Nitori's death spread around the school, sending everyone back down to hopelessness. They all though that for a minute, nothing really would happen.

"Well, now's time for our job." Orin said at breakfast. Okuu nodded solemnly and quickly followed Orin to Eirin. "Where's Nitori?" she asked as she entered. Eirin pointed to the body on the bed on the other side of the room. Orin nodded and a wheelbarrow quickly formed at the palms of her hand. "I'd like to do this when there's more to carry, but oh well." Once Orin had put the body into the wheelbarrow, they were about to leave before she forgot something. "Ah, sorry Eirin. It's part of our jobs, I'm sure you understand." she quickly explained. Eirin nodded and they walked out, stopping once they hit a decent patch of grass. "Alright, your turn." Okuu nodded and took her control rod in one hand. It shattered the ground under them, and they made their way down to the underground. Once they hit former hell, the ground above them went back to normal.

"Hey, here we are!" Okuu exclaimed

"Yep, home sweet home!" Orin stretched and once again grabbed the wheelbarrow. They pushed it over to the courtyard of the Palace of the Earth Spirits. They both made their way down the large hole to the blazing fires.

"Ooh, the heat has gotten a bit low..." Okuu did her job of heating it up using her control rod, to the point where it would have burned a normal human to a crisp miles away from it.

"Nice! Now, we'll get this done quick." Orin went ahead and dumped the body in. The second it hit a tiny little flame, the whole thing erupted into an inferno, quickly turning the body to ashes. "Ah! That roar was pretty loud, huh?" Okuu agreed as the two made their way back up to the surface.

Marisa was rather sad, because she had just befriended the kappa. She was shy, and never spoke at all. Once she had figured out that Nitori had knew just as much about magic as she did, they would talk for hours. She had even offered to fix her mini-hakkero for her. She went to go see Nitori, but Eirin told her that a Kasha and a Hell Crow just left with her body. Marisa bumped into the two on their way back up from the underground.

"Sorry, but we didn't go to cremate her, we went to go burn her body completely. No ashes, no nothing." Orin explained.

"Why would you do that!?"

"It's our job," Okuu spoke out. "We regulate the Nuclear Furnace, and to keep it burning, nothing works better as firewood than dead bodies."

"It's fire! Use wood or something!"

"If we did, there wouldn't be a single tree left in Gensokyo. It's best to use something that's already dead, no one can do anything with it besides bury it. Either way, you won't be able to see it." The two shuffled off and Marisa tried to control her anger.

"Is it something to worry about yet?" Patchouli asked.

"Shut up!" Marisa growled.

"Stay on guard, okay? The last thing you want is to be carried off by that Kasha." Marisa nodded and walked off. Today they had the day off, so there was absolutely nothing to do. Which gave Marisa all the time in the world to search around, for the murderer. This was a stupid idea. A really stupid idea. But she had to do it, she was sick on just sitting around.

"You're foolish for trying to do that." Marisa looked up and found that Satori was right in front of her.

"I know. I'm just..."

"A little pissed off about someone murdering your friend." she finished. "If that's the case, then what if she wasn't your friend?"

"What?"

"Think about it. Anyone would clearly be upset about the death of a friend, but that's only because they're someone you know more than others. If she was just another kappa, would you do this, or even feel anything about it?"

"... I don't know."

"You don't? I wouldn't, in my opinion. Cruel, you say? That's only because I never even knew what the girl looked like. But a death is a death, is it not?"

"Yes..."

"I'll help you."

"Eh!?"

"I've nothing else to do. In plus, the quicker we find them, the lower the probability of anyone close to you or me dying."

"That is true..."

"Well? Where to?" Marisa gave it a minute. She didn't know herself.

"Anywhere well hidden."

"Awfully specific, huh? Well the first place to head would be the lake." Marisa nodded and took the lead. When the made it to the lake, the checked around. No one on the rocks, no one behind the trees, and most likely no on in the water. As they left, Marisa felled to notice the small splash behind her. Ignoring that, they checked the little forest with the old school portables in it. Nothing in the dusty portable, or the bushes and trees. Marisa didn't notice the thing watching them from the tall branch of the tree. Next stop, barren ground. Nothing behind the boulders, and Satori noticed the scratch marks down one of them. It wasn't very helpful though.

"We've checked everywhere!" Marisa sighed.

"There was no chance of the murderer being anywhere we checked."

"What? How come!?"

"Because the murderer is one of the students, obviously. It's called hiding in plain sight."

"Then why didn't you say anything before?"

"Because I wanted you to think before you acted." Satori sighed before disappearing.

The next day, Suwako trudged around the school, stuck in deep thought. She felt her presence disappear as she passed a group of young youkai. She looked back, and noticed a certain one. Before they knew it, Cirno was face to face with a goddess.

"You there, ice fairy. I need you to come with me." She said. Cirno was too surprised to move, so she had to drag her. She pulled her behind a rock and Cirno was even more scared.

"What do you want with me...?" she asked.

"Hold on, I'm not going to kill you. You've heard of the recent murder, yes?" Cirno nodded quickly. "Good. I'll need you to be my partner in the next sparring match."

"Wh-What!?"

"Listen, I'll just need you to..." she whispered the rest in Cirno's ear and Cirno let out a sigh of relief. She agreed to it, and they both went their separate ways. When Cirno got back they asked her what happened. She just laughed.

"This is stupid." Alice said suddenly at break. Everyone turned to her in confusion. "Am I the only one who is asking the whereabouts of Reimu?" Everyone gasped, no one even noticed. Most would think she's off doing some sort of training. It would only make sense, she's the Hakurei shrine maiden.

"Oh geez, you're right!" Remilia exclaimed. "Where is she?"

"Marisa, do you know?"

"I haven't a clue." she shrugged. "That's really weird..."

"Ah... maybe Yukari would know?" Meiling suggested.

"But who would dare get near her? She's still a bit freaky, even if I do have to face her in Magic Library."

"Eh? You have to fight her!?"

"When she get's bored, she picks on us magicians. But even then, it's pretty rare."

"Maybe Reimu is gone, too?" Flandre suggested.

"No way!" Remilia said. "If she was, somebody must have found her body by now!"

"But Onee-sama, maybe it was different."

"How?"

"She disappeared. Off of Gensokyo. Leaving nothing behind."

"A youkai with such a power to do that... that's impossible! In plus, why wouldn't they do the same with Nitori?"

"A message, to scare us." Everyone was quiet for a bit. "It's possible." she grinned. The end of break sounded and everyone headed to their classes. Suwako waited for her plan to unfold once sparring matches started up again. They went back to normal and the fights were a bit exciting. When Cirno and Suwako were called up due to Cirno sneaking and changing the schedule, both of them nodded to each other. Once they were called up, Suwako put her hands onto the ground, and a small stump formed. Cirno blasted at it, and ice encased it. Then Suwako repeated it and Cirno kept blasting it until it made a tall frozen pillar. It grew well over the height of the stadium. Suwako closed her eyes for a bit and then zoomed over to Cirno's spot, where she then threw a large golden ring at the base of it, and it went tumbling down. The crowd was smart enough to move out of the way, as it crushed a large section of the bleachers. A scream came as Suwako jumped on top of the pillar and walked down to where the tip landed.

"Show yourselves!" she called.

"Alright, you got us!" A voice answered. Then out of pure air, one figure formed. It had grey skin, and sported a blue cap and kept its arms straight up.

"A zombie!" Cirno exclaimed.

"I'm a Jiang Shi!" she corrected.

"You don't look like any type of threat." Suwako said. "I heard you say us. Where are the others?" From behind her, something large over-shadowed her. She turned around and-

"BOO!" it screamed. "Did I scare you?" Behind Suwako was a girl with turquoise hair and a large umbrella that kept it's tongue out. The girl looked and saw that Suwako didn't flinch a bit. "Aww..."

"Idiots." With a bump or two on each of their heads, Suwako began to question them. "Your names?"

"Yoshika." the Jiang Shi spoke up.

"Kogasa..." the umbrella girl sighed, still a bit sad that she didn't scare Suwako.

"Yoshika, Kogasa, why are you here?"

"We were here because we got bored," Kogasa explained.

"That's not a good enough answer." Both of them jumped, scared that they weren't going to live. "Yoshika, what is that on your head?"

"Ah, it's a to-do list!" Suwako ripped it off and looked at it.

"It says, 'Do something besides bother me'. Who gave you this?"

"My master, of course!"

"Who is...?"

"Uh, I don't know master's name..."

"Now, we're you two around a few days ago?"

"Nope, not at all." Kogasa told her.

"Did you happen to meet a kappa?"

"A kappa? No..."

"Useless. You two, get out of here before I turn into something useful." The two jumped at that and flew off quickly. Suwako turned to Cirno and gave her her thanks for helping.

"Ah, that's no problem!" Cirno grinned. And just by luck, Yukari popped out of one of her gaps.

"Why didn't you leave the interrogation to me?" she asked with a smile.

"I'm not putting any of my trust in you, Yukari." Suwako answered. "In plus, youkai like that couldn't even sneak up on anyone, no less kill them."

"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that." she chuckled.

"What do you mean by that?" Once again, she was gone. "Damn it, Yukari..."


	2. Chapter 2

**Here, some more Touhou. Geez, it took me quite a few hours to get this done because I kept procrastinating and rewording stuff.**

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After Suwako discovered Yoshika and Kogasa hiding, everyone grew more suspicious.

"If the youkai we haven't seen before were those two, then does that mean no one obscure could have caused it?" Yamame spoke up at the hall.

"It seems so." Parsee answered. "So it's someone in this school that has been here the whole time, no doubt. Talk about making matters worse..."

"I don't think it is," spoke Tenshi who came up out of nowhere. "I'm sure I saw more than two mysterious people!"

"Why are you even here?"

"Oh, I'm everywhere! In plus, I wanna know more about everyone else's thoughts. It's actually pretty exciting..."

"I see. You think this is some type of murder mystery? Well think again, there's not going to be any cliche endings."

"You actually seem pretty excited about death." Yamame noted. "Isn't that a bit weird? I mean, we're talking about dying and never coming back..."

"I guess I do feel bad for the kappa, but still. Don't you want to find who is doing this?" Tenshi asked.

"I'd rather just keep to myself and try to stay alive, like any regular youkai."

"I heard celestials are risky ones..." Parsee muttered.

"What are you trying to say?" Tenshi asked.

"Ah, nothing. You've been living it up in heaven, no doubt that you'd like some action to happen down here too..."

"Damn right, I do! I'm off to go searching for more mysterious youkai!" and with that, she stormed out of the hall.

"Looks like you've made her mad..." Yamame told her.

"Yeah, I probably did. Tenshi is a bit too excited about all of this, though."

"So you're suspecting that she murdered Nitori?"

"Hey, none of us are safe to assume that no one we know could have done it..." Yamame nodded her head in agreement as it sounded for them to go to their dorms. That night, everyone kept their doors locked tight and didn't dare to go out. Well, except for one group of girls. Cirno, Rumia, and Mystia decided to fly over to the misty lake to have some fun. Wriggle and Daiyousei didn't care for doing that, so they stayed at their dorms. Once they made it there, Cirno said that she'll count as the other two hid somewhere on the shore. They all agreed to it, and once she hit 10, the two were nowhere to be seen. Cirno immediately thought that surveying the bushes and trees that lined the shore would help. After around 2 minutes of walking she bumped into something that wasn't a tree or a bush. And it wasn't Mystia or Rumia either. Whatever it was, it was wet and stained her hand. She looked up and fear clouded her thoughts. She immediately took off and flew as fast as she could to one of the dorms. Once she touched down she sprinted for a room and began to bang on the door.

"Hmm?" The door opened and Suwako was standing there, still halfway asleep. "Ah, Cirno-"

"Suwako! Come with me! Quickly, quickly!" she grabbed Suwako's hand and began to pull. Suwako saw that Cirno's hand was wet and understood, so she immediately flew after her. When she touched down on the shore of the misty lake, Cirno led her to what she found.

"So they didn't back down..." she muttered as she stared at the blood-painted scene. Pinned to the ground, with many stakes running through their body, laid Flandre with a pain-stricken face. Fresh blood was still seeping from her wounds, but her death was obvious. "This time a vampire... this makes no sense!" she growled.

"Suwako... why would they do this to Flan?" Cirno asked, her voice shaky.

"I...I can't say..." she looked at the scene once more."But for now, we have to get her to Eirin." So they pried the wooden stakes out of her body and Suwako carried her. Once they got there, Eirin didn't need to explain. How she died was obvious. Suwako then left to deliver the message. Once she got to the dorm, she knocked on the door. Remilia quickly answered.

"Yes, what is it?" Suwako looked down and took off her hat.

"Remilia, there's something that you might want to see..." Remilia was a bit confused but followed Suwako. Once they made it, Remilia was paralyzed. "I'm sorry Remilia, we found her like this..."

"Flan..?" she whispered. She knelt down at the bed and took Flandre's icy hand in hers. "Flan, no...!" she sobbed. The others quickly left Remilia in there with Flan and turned to each other.

"Cirno, will you be fine returning to your dorm like this?" Suwako asked. Cirno nodded but Suwako could tell that she was lying. As the crying from the inside grew louder, Suwako apologized to Eirin and led Cirno back to her dorm. Once Cirno went to her own room, she remembered Rumia and Mystia. But they had already returned to their dorms, so she didn't worry.

When the morning came, everyone had learned the news. Pretty much everyone had made friends with Flandre or at least met her, so the room was quieter than usual. Remilia wasn't around, which made a lot of sense.

"It's time for our job again..." Orin sighed. Okuu agreed and they both walked over to Eirin's office and found Remilia sitting across from Flandre. This is going to be harder than usual, Orin thought to herself. Orin approached Remilia cautiously, and Remilia had yet to notice her.

"Uh, hey Remilia...?" she asked gently. Remilia finally looked up.

"What is it?" she said, in a much softer tone than usual. For a second there, Orin wanted to give up.

"I'm really sorry, but it's our job to..." Orin lost the words to say. She just didn't want to come out and say that they were going to throw her sister into the fires. "...well, cart corpses, if you know I mean."

"...I understand." Remilia got up and left. Orin watched her leave and then sighed.

"Geez, that was hard Okuu."

"Yeah, that's the worse part about carting the corpses of people you know." she agreed. They both quickly got their job done, and returned to the hall. When they got there, many stares followed them to their table. "I think they all know what we just did..." Okuu whispered.

"So? It's not our fault. We're just getting the job done, ya know?"

"Both of you calm down," Satori advised. "And no, you're not calm, Orin. You're scared of being accused, but I know neither of you did anything wrong." Just then, a figure popped up from behind them.

"Hey, you two." said Rumia. "Did you just go and do away with Flan?"

"Wha-what about it?" Orin asked.

"I saw you two last time with Nitori."

"So? We're just getting our job done!" Okuu growled.

"But how could you do that to them?"

"Hey, unless you want the Nuclear Furnace to die, you'd do better to not question it!" Orin hissed.

"So you did it to keep a furnace alive? Sounds like a perfect excuse for murder."

"What!? Now that's too far! Do you think that we really would kill the students here... just to keep the furnace alive? There is a reason why we only pick up corpses... and that's because they're dead!" Orin and Okuu both stood up.

"That's right! Orin wouldn't touch anybody! It doesn't matter whether it's here or somewhere else in Gensokyo, it's her job to cart corpses!" Okuu agreed. They both looked around, and not a single person seemed to agree besides others from the underground. Orin glanced at Remilia, who didn't speak at all. She just looked away.

"I'm fed up with you people! We're blamed for preventing disaster!" Orin took Okuu's hand and led her out of the hall. Satori and the rest of the youkai from the underground sighed and followed after them.

"I know what they did isn't wrong..." Remilia muttered. "But to be blamed for it..." No one could hear her. They were all too busy thinking about the fact Rumia pointed out. But their argument was true, why would they need to murder Flandre and Nitori? While everyone else was stuck in deep thought Remilia stood up and left. Classes continued that day, and everyone was trying to piece together what happened.

"Two people now!" Marisa growled in Magic Library.

"But who could have done it?" Patchouli wondered.

"I don't think it was anyone from underground." Alice told them.

"It can be anyone, you know..."

"So can we really trust what we tell each other anymore?"

"I guess not..." Marisa sighed. "I hate this..."

"Me too. The only thing to do now is to act." Alice said.

"How?"

"I don't know, what does a regular person do?"

"They would probably just fear for their life and end up dead." Patchouli said.

"That's not the route I wanna take."

"Me neither."

"Margatroid, Kirisame, Knowledge!" A voice called. "You'd do best to stay quiet."

"Yeah, yeah..." they said in unison.

"Princess, what do you suspect?" Reisen asked during break.

"I don't." Kaguya simply answered.

"Eh?"

"I don't suspect anything. I'll be damned if the cause is anyone on the school grounds."

"A force from outside?"

"Like an alien?" Tewi grinned.

"Exactly."

"They have those?" Reisen said.

"Sure do," Tewi told her. "They fly out of the sky, and their favorite meal is Moon Rabbit Stew."

"You're lying." While she said this, Reisen was a bit scared.

"Suwako." A voice spoke from behind her. Suwako turned to see that it was Patchouli.

"Ah, Patchouli. What is it?"

"I'll need help from you."

"Ah, is that so?" The two proceeded to engage in conversation until break ended. Suwako agreed to Patchouli's little request and they both once again waited until sparring matches where all youkai were gathered. As the final round, Suwako went up against Mystia for an easy win and then lifted herself up on a stump of earth. Then she called out in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. "All of you shall need to meet outside of the forest that lines the misty lake after we go to the dinner hall! This is an order!" Everyone was quiet as she jumped down and the earth returned to its original spot. Then everyone headed for the hall.

"Thank you Suwako." Patchouli told her on the way there.

"No need to thank me, it's to prevent that from happening anyway..." They all went to their usual spots, except for Remilia. Instead she visited Orin and Okuu.

"Ah, Remilia." Orin noted as she took a seat next to them.

"I'm sorry people are blaming you." Remilia told them. "I know it's not your fault."

"Thanks a lot, Remilia. But no worries, this type of stuff is common, you know."

"You're from the upper part of Gensokyo, right?" Yamame asked. As Remilia continued to speak with all of them, the three magicians were plotting something, so Sakuya and Meiling were left with just them two.

"Do you think Remilia is alright?" Sakuya asked.

"Yeah, look over there, she's talking with the underground youkai. That's proof enough." Meiling told her.

"I think you're right. But I do hope someone puts an end to all this..."

"Me as well, I hate meaningless death." Once the end of dinner hall sounded, all of the youkai obeyed Suwako's orders and were standing at the edge of the forest. No one had any idea what was going on, until the sound of Suwako's earth pillar growing resonated. They all looked up and found that there were four people standing on it. Suwako, along with Marisa, Patchouli, and Alice. Everything grew dead silent as Patchouli spoke first.

"Because of the turn events that have occurred in the past week, we have decided to make a school-wide investigation."

"Which means, everyone will split up into groups and search the forest, the lake, and other spots." Alice further explained.

"No need to search the dorms, no one is gonna be there." Marisa said.

"We all know that there were suspicious youkai trailing the campus besides Yoshika and Kogasa. I was sure I saw many more." Suwako ended off. "So now all of you will need to group together and search until midnight. Don't worry, we will do the same." With that, the pillar shrunk back down. All of the youkai exchanged glances before grouping up. There were all groups of five. The three magicians grouped up with Sakuya and Meiling and searched the lake. Kisume, Yamame, Parsee, Yuugi, and Suika rampaged through the forest, while Orin invited Remilia to her group which also included Okuu, Satori and Koishi. Suwako went with Sanae and a few tengu to search the flatlands. Oddly, somehow one group worked out with Youmu, Chen, and the Prismriver Sisters, while another was Kaguya, Reisen, Tewi, Keine and Ran. Many more groups were formed and everyone headed out. Patchouli's group was flying over the lake when Marisa landed on a rock and lost her balance. She slipped and landed with a thud, only to catch something slippery and scaly in her hands.

"Marisa, are you alright?" Sakuya asked as she flew above her.

"Yeah, but I caught something worth interest! A big fish!" she said as she struggle to keep it in her hands.

"No, not a big fish!" A voice called. "You caught... me!" The fish tail slapped her in the face and dove back in the water.

"Hey, what was that!?"

"Serves you right!" Out of the water popped a girl with blue hair and a green kimono. Her legs was what slapped Marisa earlier.

"Oh, what the heck are you?"

"A mermaid, no duh!"

"And a youkai that hasn't been at this school before." Sakuya noted with a knife at the girl's throat.

"Woah, hold it! Don't kill me!" The rest of the group landed next to Sakuya.

"Why is a mermaid like you in the misty lake?" Patchouli asked.

"Because it's a lake! I didn't know I was on school property, geez..."

"What do you suggest we do, Patchouli?" Alice asked.

"Seems like a harmless one. We'll let her go for now."

"Harmless!? I take offense to that!"

"Just be quiet and stay here or I'll turn you into cooked fish." Marisa said as she held out her mini-hakkero. The girl obeyed and they went to go report to Suwako.

Over at Orin's group, Orin had devised a plan.

"I know this may be weird, but I think we should check former hell."

"Eh? Why?" Okuu asked.

"I think that if a youkai were stupid enough, they could tumble down the hole you create whenever we go down. And once it closes, you can't really escape." Okuu nodded her head in agreement.

"Then I guess we'll be going down now?" Orin nodded and Okuu picked up the control rod again. "Heads up, Remilia." Then she sent it down with a crash and the ground shattered, revealing a little open tunnel that went straight down. They flew down and once they touched the floors of former hell, the tunnel closed.

"Where do you suspect the youkai is, Orin?" Satori asked. Orin shrugged.

"Maybe they found the Palace of the Earth Spirits?" Koishi suggested. They all agreed, but made sure to check around in other spots on the long trek there. Once they made it to the mansion, they quickly headed inside before Okuu stopped them.

"Hey, what if they fell into the blazing fires? That hole in the courtyard is pretty big."

"Good idea, Okuu. Hopefully they haven't hit the furnace yet." Orin said. "I'll go with Okuu to the furnace." The two went to the courtyard as Remilia followed the Komeijis through the mansion.

"We won't be able to find them at this rate," Satori sighed. "We should split up. Hopefully you won't get too lost, Remilia."

"No, it's fine." So then the three went their separate ways. Satori hit about ten dead ends while Remilia ran into a maze. Koishi leisurely skipped down the large main hallway, where it's impossible to get lost. Before too long, she heard a little voice coming from around the corner. She turned it to find a grey-haired girl wearing white shouting odd things.

"Thou hath gotten lost in thy maze! Where will thou go?" she ran around helplessly, and Koishi sneaked up on her.

"Who are you?" she asked, scaring the wits out of her. The girl recollected herself and began to speak.

"Thou mayest call me Mononobe no Futo."

"I'm Koishi. Sis is looking for you, so you can come with me now!" Koishi grabbed Futo's hand and dragged her around the mansion.

"Where is thou taking me?" she asked.

"To sis, of course!" With not another word, the two found Satori. "Sis look! I found someone who talks funny!"

"Thou may be showing me thy sister?" Koishi nodded.

"Oh, Orin was right after all." Satori said. "Now we need to go find Remilia, I'm sure she's lost." So they followed where they sent Remilia and found her at the edge of the large hallway. "Ah, there you are."

"Who's the youkai?" she asked.

"She goes by the name of Futo, apparently."

"Ah, where's Okuu and Orin?"

"We're on our way to go get them." With that, they made it to the courtyard and peeked down into the hole. "There's a passageway, so you won't burn up." Satori assured. Remilia nodded as they flew down and landed on the metal platform. Then they walked down a long hall and Satori called out. Immediately they both returned.

"Ah, so you've found a youkai after all?" Orin asked. "I guess we should go to Suwako now?" They all agreed as they flew up and out of former hell.


	3. Chapter 3

**To answer a question that's been bothering me for a while not to state, Kanako isn't in here, but Sanae and Suwako are. Why? Truthfully, characters like that would seem more like one of the higher-ups. Suwako would be one of the students that seems much more like a leader. And sorry, this one is around 500 words shorter than usual...**

* * *

Back at Suwako's group, that were having no trouble searching the flat lands.

"Nothing here, Lady Suwako." A tengu reported.

"I see. I guess we should..." Suwako trailed as she noticed something from afar.

"Is something the matter, Lady Suwako?" Sanae asked.

AWOOO~!

A shadowy figure flashed past Sanae, leaving a cut that bled in an odd manner.

"Sanae!" Suwako rushed over to her. "Hmm, stay still." She then began to properly analyze the wound. "A rather deep gash, I must say. No doubt it belongs to..."

AWOOO~!

"... a werewolf."

"Ooh, you guessed right." A voice spoke. A shadow leapt out from behind a rock and there stood a girl in a blue dress that was partially red. She had wolf-like ears that blended with her long brown hair and sharp red nails.

"Why have you attacked us?" Suwako questioned. A sharp grin made its way onto the girl's face.

"Oh, it's a full moon and I just wanted to bask in the moon. I couldn't resist wanting to sneak up on a group like you."

"Hmm, a weak youkai that seems to pose a threat under certain conditions." she told herself. "Werewolf, come with us. We'll be able to question you with means of violence."

"No way! I'll submit only if you defeat me, though I doubt you could!" she growled, baring her fangs.

"Fine. Come." Suwako sighed.

"Don't underestimate me under this full moon!" she said as energy crept up her body and hid her completely. They heard another howl and out of the ball of energy pounced a vicious wolf. It flew past Suwako faster than she could follow. She suffered the same fate as Sanae, but didn't even budge. Then the next second the werewolf had transformed back into a girl and she quickly pounced again. Her transformation was so quick that anyone would had difficulty catching it. As the girl went back and forth, Suwako gained more and more cuts by the second. She stayed quiet and calm and after about a minute, Suwako stuck her arm out. The werewolf plowed into it and stopped instantly. She quickly transformed back into a girl and fell to the ground.

"She passed out...!" Sanae gasped.

"After wasting so much energy, an indirect blow to the stomach was enough to knock her unconscious." she explained as she ordered the tengu to carry the girl's limp body. "In plus, those cuts couldn't make a scratch on any metal."

The almost completely underground group that traveled through the forest were finding that nothing would turn up.

"We got separated form Yuugi and Suika." Yamame sighed.

"Whatever, they're probably off doing their own thing." Parsee told them.

"Hey guys, look over there." Kisume held out an arm to point in front of them. They all stopped to look, and hear loud shouts.

"Nooo! Stop it, that's my head!" A voice cried.

"It looks more like trash to me!" The other one spoke.

"Shut up and give it back to me!" They looked further to see that a green-haired youkai in brown was using a red hairy object as a golf ball and their broom as a club. But then they all caught a glimpse of the other side of the object. It was a head, a really pissed off one. As it yelled at the other youkai, the sight sent chills down everyone's spines.

"Hey hey, what do you think you're doing?" Parsee asked as she stepped in front of the youkai.

"This dullahan's head was in the way!" she answered.

"I'm not a freaking dullahan!" the head screamed as the body came about and grabbed it's head. She put back on and slapped the other youkai in the back of her head. "I'm a Rokurokubi!"

"Same difference!"

"No, it's not the sam-" Suddenly, both of them felt a chill flow through their body. Behind them, Yamame slipped her cold and webby fingers down their necks, causing them to jump ten feet.

"There there, if you two keep fighting, I'll leave you both stuck here with a specialty disease of mine that kills in under 6 hours." she said calmly and politely, which added to their fear. "Sadly, it's an agonizing death. 6 hours will feel like a 6 days to you..."

"Yamame..." Parsee sighed.

"I'm not going to really kill them, I prefer not to use my powers like that." Yamame said as she removed her hands. The two youkai took Yamame very seriously, though. They were still quiet.

"Now you two, what's your names?" Parsee asked.

"Kyouko." the one with the broom spoke up.

"Sekibanki." the headless one answered.

"Stay quiet and come with me, we won't kill you."

"Not yet." Yamame whispered behind their backs. They both started shivering and she began to laugh.

It had hit midnight, and they were all to report back to the same spot. Some came empty handed, some didn't. Suwako was to investigate them all. In front of her sat a hermit, a mouse youkai, a rokurokubi, a yamabiko, and a werewolf, all well behaved. The group which included the Prismriver Sisters, Youmu, and Chen brought in the mouse.

"Is there anymore?" Suwako called out.

"Yeah there is." Marisa answered. "There's this mermaid girl we found at the misty lake. We didn't bring her though."

"That's fine, I'll see to her later." With that Suwako looked at the youkai that had been found. The hermit spoke at her first.

"Thou mayest call me Mononobe no Futo," she recited. "Speak now and name thyself."

"Suwako Moriya," she said, with a slight hint of agitation. "Godess of the youkai mountain. Now the rest of you, tell me your names." They all spoke at once, but the mouse was Nazrin, the werewolf was Kagerou, the rokurokubi was Sekibanki, and the yamabiko was Kyouko. Then she began to question them about why they were there.

"My resurrection hast come, so that thieves who may show their heart's true desire may not-" Suwako cut Futo short right there.

"Sekibanki dropped her head while I was sweeping the shrine grounds, so I played golf with it." Kyouko said simply.

"I was practicing my spell cards when a giant blast of wind came. I dropped my head, and I went searching for it to find this yamabiko playing around with it! I don't know how we got here, though..." Sekibanki explained.

"Like I've said before, it was a full moon, and I wanted to find a place where the moon was fully visible. And then you popped up and I was itching to test my powers out." Kagerou repeated.

"Me? Well I was searching around for Shou's pagoda..." Nazrin squeaked.

"Can we leave yet?" Sekibanki asked.

"Now who's to say that I actually believe the crappy alibis you're feeding me?" Suwako growled. All of the youkai jumped at that.

"Wow, Lady Suwako is acting scarier than usual..." Sanae gasped.

"Of course, Lady Suwako hates dealing with these kinds of things." A tengu informed her.

"Now, does anyone have anything extra to say to me?" Suwako asked.

"Might I speak?" Futo asked. Suwako nodded in response. "Although my resurrection hast surely come, my true intention of coming here was the cause of thy feeling of mysteriousness. Thou presence is corrupted in this area."

"A presence? Tell me more about this."

"To explain, may I lead you towards it?" Suwako nodded, and they all followed Futo up to a spot where water flowed, but not as big as the lake. "Such a presence has manifested in thy spring."

"Hmm..." Suwako hands met with the ground as the floor of the spring was lifted for all to see. A large figure was thrown up a foot or two and landed on the ground. Every gasped as it rolled to Suwako's feet. The figure was the grey and deformed face of Hakurei Reimu. "It's the shrine maiden...!" Suwako bent down and investigated further. "She died... somehow drowned..."

"But that's impossible!" Marisa yelled out. "That spring isn't deep enough to drown someone...!" Obviously, Marisa couldn't believe what she saw. There was no way her best friend would come up dead, just like others who befriended her.

"That's true, but what if she was forced down, and ran out of air...?" Alice shuddered. Suwako paused for a minute. She picked the miko's body, which was rather heavy due to the water, and handed it over to Orin.

"Do what you must." Suwako told her. Orin nodded and signaled for Okuu to follow as the two left. Then Suwako turned to Marisa. "You say that you found a mermaid near the misty lake?" Marisa nodded. "She is a creature that dwells in water. We'll have to question her immediately." They all agreed to it as Marisa led them to the lake.

"Hey mermaid, you still here?" Marisa croaked. Her throat hurt and she was holding back tears, so she didn't dare yell out like she usually would.

"Well yeah, you threatened to turn me into cooked fish!" A voice replied. After a quick splash the girl revealed herself once again. "Woah, I didn't know you would bring so many people with you..."

"So you're the mermaid?" Suwako asked.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Have you seen a girl in red and white lately?"

"Red and white? No, I just got here, like a few hours ago."

"I don't believe that is the case." Satori spoke out.

"What do you mean?" Suwako asked.

"A day after the murder of Nitori, I aided Marisa in searching for a suspect. I remember sensing you in these very waters." The whole crowd began to murmur.

"Is this true?" Suwako asked as she turned to the girl.

"Well yeah, maybe it is."

"Yes or no?" she repeated in a much stricter tone.

"Yes! Okay? I was here, doing what any regular mermaid would. I found these waters to be rather fun to play around, geez..."

"That's all I needed to know." Suwako turned to all the others. "All of you can rest now, I shall take care of these six youkai myself." They all nodded and headed to their dorms, still taking in the fact that the missing miko had been dead from the very beginning.

The next day, Suwako had picked out an odd group of people to consult matters with.

"Why us?" Lyrica asked.

"I have a feeling that you'd be of the most help." Suwako answered.

"Well, I'm up for some helping!" Merlin told her.

"I wouldn't mind it, either." Lunasa said quietly.

"That's great, I need all three of you. After doing further interrogation yesterday, Futo seems to know quite a bit. She will also be teaming up with you. If all of them are being honest, Sekibanki and Kyouko ended up here on mistake. We'll let them go for now. Futo senses no object that Nazrin is speaking of on this campus, so she could possibly have something to do with it. Kagerou was just out here on a full moon, but I still can't say that she's completely innocent."

"What about the mermaid?"

"I'm putting suspicion on her too. We don't know what her powers are, so we can't say that she didn't pull Reimu into the spring and drown her, and then return to the misty lake." Suwako sighed. They whispered the rest of the conversation and the Prismrivers agreed. Back at hall, everyone was rather shaken up, now that three people had come to pass. They stared and glanced around nervously. Some were scared, and most were paranoid. Through everyone's heads, thoughts that pointed at certain people were conscious. Later on, the three magicians talked about it at Magic Library.

"There's no way," Patchouli sighed. "The way the three deaths occurred; they can't all just point at one person."

"Actually, they can." Alice said.

"In what way?" Marisa asked.

"Forgive me for being contemplative, but I just thought about it. Wood, Metal, and Water. Stakes, tools, and a spring. Only we know about the details, because we talked to Suwako, right? Reimu, on the other hand, was seen by everybody. But back to the real matter. The materials, they're also elements. But they're elements used only if you know magic all that well."

"What are you trying to say?" Patchouli asked.

"A magician could have done it. Wood can be bound with magic, and water can be manipulated as well. But about the metal... Patchouli, do you know?"

"Actually, the metal in a tool can be moved, levitated, etc... so yes, it can become the work of a magician."

"That makes sense and all, but I pretty much mostly know star magic and Alice knows doll magic. There's like ten other people who know elemental magic..."

"Actually, there isn't."

"Eh, Patchouli?"

"Most actually have magic pointed towards specific areas. I've studied it. I'm more of an all around magician with no specific motive on what to learn, so I'd be considered elemental." she said. With that, Magic Library ended. By luck, quite a few Lunarians and Rabbits had History at the same time, so during that time, Reisen and Tewi accompanied Kaguya as well.

"Do you think more people will be murdered, Princess?" Reisen asked.

"I think that this could all be a joke," Tewi muttered.

"It can't possibly be a joke with those two from the underground doing away with their bodies."

"Unless, they're helping out with the joke." Kaguya suggested. "Though I doubt that's possible."

"This is horrid, whoever calls this a game..."

"It looks like a game to me."

"Princess?"

"I don't die, it's almost like playing a video game watching everyone drop dead." she sighed.

"That's cold blooded, Princess..." Tewi said.

"I know, but what else to do? Cry over spilled milk?"

"Well maybe so, if it keep you from turning into something heartless..." Reisen muttered under her breath.

When break hit, everyone seemed to go back to usual. But in truth, everyone was just speaking about the incident, seeing if one person or the other would slip and reveal a clue to the murderer. Suwako noticed the odd behavior floating around in the break hall. Hopefully the Prismrivers did their jobs right. And they did. They reported back to Suwako, and she accepted the status with great thanks. After the rest of the classes finished, Suwako ordered them back to the same spot.

"Today I'm not going to make you do anything more. But what I will do is tell you that we should keep an eye out for any sort of openings or passages to other part of Gensokyo on the campus." They all nodded and turned to the dorms. Suwako jumped down from the rock opposite the way she came, and something caught her eye. "Wait, everyone!" they all stopped and huddled around the rock. "The rock, it's leaking blood...!" she noted. She took the rock by one hand, and overturned it. It landed with a thud, and reveled the swordsman, Youmu Konpaku. Not only was her crushed body a horrid sight, her own short sword was gored through her neck. Everyone cringed at it, and Suwako had once again failed to prevent a death. Suwako motioned to Orin and Okuu before turning around. "Everyone, get to your rooms quickly. We don't want any more deaths..."


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry, I would have gotten this done a day earlier, but I had to play some games to ensure information. For now, I hope you enjoy! (I'm not very good at writing fighting scenes...)**

* * *

The next day was a break day for everyone, so they could do what they wanted. In the middle of breakfast at the hall, Futo walked over to Suwako to tell her something.

"Yes, what is it?" she asked.

"Does thou have memory of the previous thing I have told them?"

"About the mysterious presence?"

"Yes. The mysterious presence has reemerged and radiates from the underground."

"Are you sure?"

"I am indeed positive. But I sense multiple presences! I have no doubt that something big lurks there." she informed her.

"Hopefully, that's the big clue. I'll go ask a favor of Orin and Okuu. For now, you try to stay still." Futo nodded as Suwako walked over to Okuu and Orin. "Pardon my intrusion, but may I ask something of you?"

"Hmm? Sure." Orin mumbled through a piece of bread.

"Futo has informed me that she feels a presence somewhere deep underground. I wanted to know if you would allow all of us to travel down there ourselves." All of the underground youkai exchanged nervous looks. "I understand that you're worried. We're not accusing you of doing anything."

"Miss Satori?" Okuu and Orin asked in unison.

"Well, I guess we can take you down there, although I would advise you to be very careful in former hell." Satori finally answered.

"Thank you, we'll promise to listen to you as we're down there. Might we depart soon after hall has ended?"

"Of course."

"Thank you, I shall inform everyone." And she did so promptly. Well, Futo did. She jumped on a table and announced the news. Her loud voice rung across the hall, so everyone got the message. With that, the students quickly did away with their food and got ready to head out. They met up with Suwako who introduced the underground youkai and said that they would need to listen to them and follow them. Futo would also lead, as she felt the presence.

"Okay everyone hold still and be ready to fly," Okuu instructed as she lifted the control rod. "This might be a bit rocky, and hot." As always she cracked the earth and revealed a massive hole. All of the youkai gained flight and headed down. Cirno had to be saved by Rumia, because she wasn't listening and almost fell down the tunnel. When they all successfully landed on the hot earth, some began to sweat. It was hotter than others would have imagined, but they would get used to it soon.

"Where to now?" Suwako asked.

"Well, where were those presences?" Orin asked Futo.

"Thy presence radiates in this direction." Futo said as she led them along.

"Isn't it pretty hot down here?" Marisa asked as she took off her hat.

"You're right. This is former hell, after all..." Alice sighed.

"Patchy, why aren't you hot? You're wearing the heaviest clothes!"

"Magic." she simply answered as she skimmed through a tome.

"Agh, elemental magicians..." The Marisa noticed something. "Elements...!" she hurried over to where Suwako was. "Suwako, it's dangerous to be down here!"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Think about it, the death has a pattern! All of them were caused by specific elements! Besides the sun and the moon, the only one left is fire!" she said, referring to the 7 days that corresponded with the elements.

"We'll need to stay on guard then, we can't give up investigation..." Suwako ordered for everyone to steer clear of anything such as lava and fire down there. After quite a few minutes of sweating profusely, Futo stopped in her tracks. "Is something the matter?" Suwako asked.

"Thy celestial has been slain!" she exclaimed.

"Eh?" Suwako walked next her, and stopped as well. Futo was right, there was a figure lying a few yards in front of them, burning up. Suwako ran over and found a sword that had fell from their hands. "The Sword of Hisou! It's Tenshi!" The body had already been burnt beyond recognition, besides a few blotches of long blue hair, and the scent of burnt peaches. Orin and Okuu came over to investigate as well.

"This wasn't a hell fire that burnt her..." Orin said. "She stumbled across something weaker than that..." her wheelbarrow formed at the tips of her fingers and she put the heap of charred flesh inside. "Futo, do you sense anything else?"

"I do. Thou presence comes from that direction." she said as she pointed far off into the distance.

"In that case, I'll stay here until we get close to the furnace." they all agreed to that and kept walking.

"Dammit, I was wrong..." Parsee muttered to herself.

"Why is that?" Yamame asked.

"Tenshi was much too excited about this whole thing, and now she's found like this...! I don't even have another guess anymore..."

"Ah, so you put suspicion in her? I thought that was weird too. Maybe it's not a student after all?"

"It has to be, we found the other youkai already!"

"But I think Futo is going to lead us to more of them."

"I hope this is the end of it..." As they kept traveling, occasional instances would make Suwako tense up. And she was right to do that. Once they were pretty close and Okuu and Orin went off to cart Tenshi, a green laser flew out of the air. Suwako caught it before it hit Cirno and simply said,

"Watch your head, it nearly got sliced off." Cirno nodded, too startled to speak and they kept on to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, with Satori helping Futo lead. When they got there, it was pretty quiet. Not a single sound from the animals that resided there. And in an instance, yellow arrows flew out of the air. Suwako got ready to dodge, but they stopped. She got confused, until they burst into a million tiny blue bullets. She avoided them, and had not a scratch, but hoped the same for the other youkai. "Show yourself!" she shouted out.

"Oh, you really want me to?" Out of pure light, a tall figure formed. Hidden in a long purple cape with golden trimmings, a girl with pointed sandy hair and purple headgear showed herself. A sword protruded from her side under her cape and she held a shaku in hand.

"A saint, are you?"

"Merely a hermit. But what would such a diverse group of youkai be doing here?"

"You know good and well why we're here." she growled.

"I see that you desire answers in your heart. Are you referring to the celestial I did away with back there?"

"Not only her!"

"Hmm, if I remember correctly, I ran into a shrine maiden, a kappa, a vampire, and a half-ghost. Rather unfortunate for them." In the back, Remilia grit her teeth and clenched her fist. She was horrified to hear the hermit talk about Flan like she was a pawn.

"So it really was you?" Suwako muttered. "Your murderous ways end now, hermit. By my hand."

"You and what army?"

"She doesn't need an army, I'm your opponent." A voice spoke out. Remilia stepped in front of Suwako.

"Remilia, you can't-"

"I want to do this Suwako." she said with immediate response.

"Ah, I see your heart desires vengeance. For what, that little girl? Vampires are no good, are they?" Remilia's eyes widened at that. Her face turned to rage as she used her speed to pounce onto the hermit. The hermit merely dodged, but Remilia refused to give up. She let out a roar as she dashed at the hermit and caused a rip in the air with her claws. That too was dodged, but she didn't see Remilia's other hand come up and deliver a second attack. The girl barely dodged it, and the attack loosened the hook on the collar of her cape, tearing it off completely and letting it fall to the ground. This revealed the rest of her outfit, which was a purple dress covered with a sleeveless off-white vest, complete with violet trimmings. The golden belt and a black belt held up the sword on her waist, which had a yellow sun as the pommel. As Remilia released another attack, the hermit dulled it with her mere palm. Remilia couldn't get her hand loose, and before she knew it, she had lost her energy. The girl grinned and took this chance to slam her to the ground. Remilia, could no longer stand up. As Suwako rushed to her side, she noticed what the hermit did.

"I see... you can absorb and use desires as a weapon." Suwako said.

"You're rather smart. Do you choose to challenge me as well?" Suwako made sure Remilia was out of harm's way before answering.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do."

"Lady Suwako!" Sanae called out.

"Its fine, Sanae. Just make sure everyone is out of the way." Suwako told her. Then she turned to the hermit. "I don't know if doing this will get me back the lives you've taken, but it will definitely prevent more from being destroyed!"

"Or will it? We will see." The girl paused for quite a few moments, surveying all of the youkai she saw. She then took a deep breath, and the cape Remilia had managed to rip off earlier returned to her shoulders. "Hmm, call me Toyosatomimi no Miko, otherwise known as the true identity of Prince Shoutoku." Suwako grew tense when she heard that.

"I see, that explains the desires..."

"It indeed does. Now, be ready to face me, mountain goddess." How Miko found out that Suwako was a mountain goddess, Suwako didn't know herself. But what she did know was that this was a hermit not easily beaten. Even so, she was ready to challenge her. It was quiet for a minute, before the battle in hell really began. They both decided to match physical strength, and Suwako used her whole forearm. Miko used her fist, and it looked even. That was until Miko pushed a little more forced and grabbed Suwako's forearm, and flipped her. Suwako tried to gain balance in air, but Miko quickly lashed out a flaming heel. Suwako endured the hit and rocks crawled into the air and sped for Miko. She held out her shaku, which sliced the rocks clean in half, before grabbing the handle and sheath of her sword. She pulled it out by only a quarter, and a brilliant light shone. Suwako was blinded, and the golden light struck her, like a laser. Smaller lasers followed, but she managed those. But such an attack was out of the ordinary! Just the pure sight of that blade can deal damage! Once Suwako's vision focused a bit more, she jumped up, and spewed out a powerful water attack. Miko didn't expect that. She was thrown back, before she fired a slow moving orb of light. Suwako paid no attention to it, as she moved on to flip a large boulder from the ground that would surely flatten the hermit. The hermit dodged it and performed a close-up feint attack with her cape that had turned red a while before. Suwako prepared to counter, before the blue orb from earlier made contact with her back. Bad idea. It almost felt as if her spine were put out of place as Suwako was thrown to the ground. She barely had time to save herself from the small pit of lava. Finally, she pulled out one of her stronger weapons. Still recovering from her save, Suwako threw dozens of iron rings in Miko's direction. Miko danced through them as Suwako performed back to back attacks with the occasional barrage of rocks. She realized attacking so harshly wouldn't do any good, so she ceased fire completely. Miko then took that moment to warp in front of her and throw back her cape, revealing a small fire attack. Suwako was lifted upon a lily pad at that moment, and countered it by clasping her hands together. Great mountains of pure rock rose from hell's floors, and Miko had a tough time dodging it. Finally, she gave in a suffered a major hit. As she recollected herself, Futo rushed in front of her.

"Leave it to me, Crown Prince!" she told her. Suwako exclaimed at this, but finally understood. This was a trap. "My apologies, Lady Suwako." she told her as she began her all-out assault. Futo advanced on her, using wind as a weapon of mass destruction. Each physical attack was powered with wind, making a kick harder than it should be. Suwako managed most of them, as Futo jumped back and began to throw what looked like... plates? Suwako blocked them with her hand, but they shattered and carved into her flesh. After ending her barrage, Futo tossed a little ball of fire at the ground. Suwako knew to prepare herself, as hell fire tore through the rock and she was about to be engulfed in it. With one last huge breath, she let out a fearsome wave of water, rendering the move useless, but exerting a lot of energy. Out of nowhere, Miko dealt one last devastating attack with her shaku, which tore right through Suwako's hat, and threw her down to the ground so that she could no longer move. As all the youkai rushed to her beaten form, Miko and Futo landed and Miko walked right up to where Suwako could see her. She knelt down and lightly placed the shaku on her head.

"Do you see how it feels to be preyed upon by the strong?" she asked. "I've won this battle, Suwako Moriya." Suwako tilted her head up a bit to speak.

"Why? Why would you do all of this to teach such a lesson?" she asked, her voice hoarse.

"Me? I didn't do this to teach a lesson. She did." Miko jerked her head towards a rock. A figure in an orange dress appeared. As she stepped closer, it was made apparent that she had short blond hair and an orange apron covered a black dress with long yellow sleeves.

"Mi... Minoriko!?" she exclaimed.

"That's right!" The goddess of harvest stammered. "I am a goddess! But even though both me and my sister work so hard to keep the autumn harvest plentiful and the leaves the right shade, we are stepped upon and laughed at! A mountain goddess would never understand how painful it is to work hard and be called a joke! No one even believes in us!"

"Minoriko..." Suwako staggered to her feet, even in all of her pain and walked towards her. "Minoriko, I never understood what it meant to be made a fool, and beaten. For you to go to these measures, it must have been hard." Minoriko was amazed that Suwako would even speak to her, and admit to her wrongdoings.

"Suwako Moriya," Miko called. "The students in this school whose bodies are said to have perished, appear before all of you." Suwako heard the crowd of youkai gasp, and she turned around to see what happened. And indefinitely, she saw Reimu, Flandre, Tenshi, Youmu, and Nitori form out of pure light from the pommel that represented a golden sun on Miko's sword. They all looked around and scratched their heads in confusion, until Remilia burst out of the crowd to meet Flandre.

"Onee-sama...!" Flandre exclaimed as she saw how relieved and happy Remilia looked.

"Flan, you're alive!" she said.

"I've always been, haven't I?" she grinned.

"Don't die on me again, okay?" she sighed.

"I bet Onee-sama was crying and everything!"

"What!? No I wasn't... well, maybe I was..."

"Now what in the world happened?" Reimu asked as she looked around. Suwako walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It's a long story, shrine maiden. A very, very long story..."

And so, all of the students in Voile made sure they got along with the Aki sisters. Futo joined as a student, and most of the other youkai they had found admitted to helping out with the murders, except for Sekibanki and Kyouko. All of the victims heard about what happened after they died and they all laughed together. Miko didn't join the school, but was still around from time to time. Okuu and Orin admitted that they help out too. Suwako easily recovered, and began to reflect more on the things she did. They all called it the Autumn Murder Incident. And in the end, it all turned into a lesson that was bigger and worth more than any number of years they could attend at Voile Academy.

* * *

**I bet you didn't expect the Stage 1 boss to be the culprit, did you? Yeah, me neither. Truthfully, the original idea was to have the whole story lead up to Shinmyoumaru and to follow the plot of Double Dealing Character. (You've already seen how that worked out...) F****or the longest time I could never even remember the Aki Sister's names. I'm not sure of Suwako's exact personality, but I thought it would be a bit fun to make her serious. I think that she probably has more of a happy personality. I'll try to incorporate that into my other stories. And I hope you won't kill me because no one really died... but then how would I do my other stories? T.T**


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